Taiwan Relaxing Curbs on Mainlanders

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 ◆ Taiwan Relaxing Curbs on Mainlanders

Taiwan's parliament Tuesday approved an amendment to allow Chinese mainlanders to visit the island for business and tourism or to get work permits, the Taiwan-based Central News Agency (CNA) reported. Under current legislation governing cross-strait activities, mainlanders can only visit to meet sick relatives, attend funerals or join seminars and familiarization tours as specialists. In the amendment, the mainlanders would be permitted to travel to the island for business and tourism and the mainland spouses of Taiwan residents would be able to take up work, the CNA said. Qualified mainlanders would also be allowed to take up posts at universities, research institutes and social organizations. The revision dropped a previous clause stipulating that the Taiwanese who had lived continuously in the mainland for four years were considered "Chinese," according to the CNA. Several million people from Taiwan have visited China -- mainly for business, sightseeing and family reunions -- since Taipei relaxed cross-strait travel bans in late 1987 to permit civilian exchanges. Some 540,000 mainlanders have since traveled to the island. The trips, however, were all made through third ports -- mainly Hong Kong -- as Taipei still bans direct transportation links between the rivals, separated in 1949 at the end of a civil war.